Tony's TR6 Restoration Site

          Situated in Perth, Western Australia

Improvement details:

6 Cyl 2500cc

Stage 2 Head

Electronic Fuel Injection

Compression 10.5 :1

Cam bearings

Flywheel lightened

Engine Balanced

J Type overdrive

EIDIS ignition system

Electric fan

Heritage Certificate

Technical Certificate

The body as it was delivered.

Well, I managed to put in some more work on the body while awaiting parts, (I'm not good at all waiting for things).

All floor panels were taken back to bare metal and etch primed. This was followed with a good coat of Red Oxide (brushed on).

The whole tub was then given a full coat of grey primer. I will put another two coats on (ok, call me paranoid..), and sand before the final finish coats go on.

Now that the chassis is virtually done, I've turned my attention to the body. I didn't realise how hard it would be to scrape all the gunk off

the bottom but my wife helped out too bless her. I also applied a liberal coat of red oxide for protection.

When the scraping is finally over, it will be sprayed with 4 coats of grey primer by yours truly, never sprayed before but how hard can it be?.

I decided to mount the body tub on the 'Spit". This gives me access to all of the tub and I really recommend this to anyone contemplating a restore.

It is basically 2 engine stands with cross bars mounted each end.

       5/07/09.....Finally got started in earnest on the body tub. Seam sealing was applied to all seams on the tub using Sikaflex.

Armed with protective gear and a high quality mask, a first coat of primer was applied (I'm a novice at this). This was followed by a further 2 coats.

You will notice the steel panel fitted between the rear wheel arches. This body shell for some unknown reason, did not have

the triangular strengtheners that are usually fitted. The steel panel really strengthens up the body at this point. It is bolted on with 6mm stainless screws and nuts.

From the 'mist' that you can see, it's obvious why you need decent protective gear although I used an acrylic primer.

The scuttle, door jams, sills and rear scuttle were all very carefully masked as these will receive special treatment after the tub has had it's top coats.

For the final primer coat, I used a primer/filler spray combined. This is a great product and really gives a good finish for laying the basecoat on (after flatting). My thanks go to TR forum members and APC body shop supplies for their help and advice, keep it coming fella's...

It was also a good time to modify the Plenum drain tubes. These were taken down into the sill and out of the back.

I now have my paint, base colour and clear topcoat. The colour I have decided to go with is Marseille Red. It is a metallic paint and the colour varies with the lighting. Below is a picture of Ivor's (88V8) car with the same colour but with possibly a different shade to mine as I think mine has more copper colour in it.....we shall see.  More to come.

The base colour has now been applied. It's amazing how exciting this project is now becoming as I can see it all coming together. I sprayed another coat of filler/primer (grey) to level the surface a bit and applied 3 coats of base colour Marseille Red.

The final coats (5) of clear was applied and this transformed the finish amazingly. It's surprising what you can accomplish with a bit of perseverance and a lot of patience. The paint is now being left to harden for a couple of weeks and it's time to work on the wings, bonnet and boot.

Took the wings out into the sun to see the effect. 4 coats of clear have to be applied next.

February 8th 2010.......All the wings are finally finished. The doors were next and showed no signs of cracking or rust. These were sanded, primed and received 4 coats of body colour. Finishing up with 4 coats of clear acrylic.

The last panel to do is the bonnet (hood). I deliberately left this until last as this is what is most noticeable on the car. I also assumed that I should have gain some spraying skill before attempting this. The inside was done first.

The plan after finalising the bonnet, is to clean my workshop up. There is so much red 'dust' everywhere, it looks like a workshop from Mars. Then I can begin on the part I am really looking forward to...assembly.

March 1st  2010......Still too much humidity in the air to spray the clear on the bonnet. Instead, I concentrated on the rear of the body shell and painted the black. Came out quite good really and I must admit to liking the Satin Black.

April 8th 2010.......All the spraying has been finished and the workshop cleaned up. I decided to strip the engine as it was the only 'unknown' part of the car and I'm glad I did. See the engine link.

While the engine was being sorted, I decided to start on the body build up starting with the wiring. I purchased a new loom which has the up-rated wiring in it. This also involved the fitting of the dash which involved the fitting of the heater and the wiper system. Everything has an order it seems and after taking the dash off a couple of times for access, I started to plan it out better. I had previously purchased new wheel boxes  but found these were not made correctly. Considering the cost of repro parts, I am amazed that a lot are of questionable quality or do not fit.

I had intended to use a new top dash pad and lower pads but came across a few challenges with this. The new top dash pad is made of silicon rubber and I found no adhesives that would glue this on. I resorted to using the old original one and after cleaning this, was very happy with the results.

Next came the lower surround pads.... After fitting these, I found I had a gap either side of the  switch plinth of about a 1/4". The only way around this was to re-drill the mounting holes and move the pads round...why aren't they made to size??.

All the clocks had been cleaned before hand and these went in next. I made a new connector pipe for the oil pressure gauge as the old one was very brittle.

I thoroughly tested everything as it was connected and the wiper switches were taken apart and refurbished.